Burger will lead Stormers against Lions

Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee said on Monday that he was working towards a point where the strongest possible combination could run out on Friday.

“We’ve had our first run where all the youngsters had a chance to play but the match against the Lions gives us a chance to play a different team, and one that will have very different challenges from the side that played against Boland Cavaliers,” Coetzee said.

“We’ll be looking to give game time to as many players as we can so that everyone understands the set-piece, the style of attack and the policies to keep the defence in shape.”

According to Coetzee, the performance of the experimental line-up that ran out against Boland over the weekend proved the squad’s conditioning programmes had been successful.

“It was a good game in the sense that it showed that all the conditioning work had been well done,” Coetzee said.

“Now it’s a matter of building up an understanding of the team dynamics and getting combinations right.

“Like all coaches I want see progress from one week to the next and it was clear after Saturday’s match that there is a lot of work to done.

“The Lions offer tough opposition and we need to remember that they are the Currie Cup champions.”

Coetzee had most of his 51-man squad running the lines at a training session on Monday.

“We’ve reached a stage where we want to field a side that will be as close as possible to the team that will play in the opening Super Rugby game against the Hurricanes in February,” he said.

“Andries Bekker and Duane Vermeulen are about two weeks away from joining the contact sessions, while Rocky (Reinhardt) Elstadt will join full scale training next week.

“Scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage has started running and by the looks of things he may be ready in two weeks’ time.”

Coetzee said he and his Lions counterpart, John Mitchell, had discussed the possibility of playing two matches involving A and B teams, but only one match would be played.